Ronnie Screwvala

Founder

Ronnie Screwvala is a first generation entrepreneur who started his journey by introducing India to multi-channel TV viewing, by launching the first cable TV network in the country. From there, he went on to build a Media and Entertainment conglomerate - UTV - spanning Television, Motion Pictures, Broadcasting, Games and Digital. In 2012 Disney acquired UTV.

The next leg of the journey is what Ronnie is most excited about – SPORT, where he would be the inspirer, entrepreneur and mobilizer. He believes that sport empowers and inspires the youth like nothing else ever does.

Onto his second Innings Ronnie is focused, through Unilazer Ventures to work with first gen entrepreneurs by investing into their companies in high growth and Impact sectors. Ronnie is also focused on Social Welfare and is the Founder trustee of The Swades Foundation. The Swades Foundation operates with the single-minded focus of empowering Rural India. Swades’s goal is to empower One Million lives every 5-6 years and lift them out of Poverty permanently, creating rural communities that are a strong asset to 21st Century India. They hope to create a model that others can follow, in India and the World. After Ronnie divested his stake in UTV to the Walt Disney Company, he decided to commit substantial of his resources to make this dream a reality. Ronnie and Zarina both devote tremendous time and energy on Swades and Zarina has chosen to work on it full time.

Supratik Sen

Supratik Sen

Co - Founder & CEO

The past 20 years working in Sports Business - he has led many leading marquee projects with athletes, sports initiatives and events in the country. His vast experience and expertise in the field of sports mainly comes from his past association with several sports, event marketing and media management companies like FMMI, Repucom, Percept D’Mark, Procam International and E-Sense Entertainment. With an overall experience of 20 years in sports business and talent management, he plays an instrumental role at U Sports in business direction, building and choosing mandates, creating IPs and franchises in select but expanding sports disciplines and categories. He largely focuses on building teams, leagues, academies that empower young athletes and work towards the overall ecosystem. The aim being positive transformation of the sports scenario in the country. He is an experienced hand in the sports industry, Supratik Sen was previously the National Head, Sports and Events Marketing at Redbull India. As a professionally trained athlete, he has also been a member of the Indian national rugby team. His strong interest in sport resulted in him being a part of the Sports Marketing movement, sweeping India at the current time with more sporting disciplines coming into prominence. He has been a faculty programme planner for some of the leading management institutions in India, where he advises on sports marketing and tourism development through sport.

Chetan Juthani

Chetan Juthani

CFO

Chetan Juthani in his current capacity at Unilazer Ventures provides financial direction, oversight and control for Unilazer and Group companies and strategic leadership for the finance function. He has over fifteen years of experience in several line and corporate roles in varied business environments - manufacturing, service and media industry

He earlier worked in the capacity of VP Finance of UTV Group and as Head Treasury of Walt Disney India where he played a key role and had been a significant contributor to the Finance and Treasury function for multiple corporate functions including Controller, Debt / Treasury, Planning and Accounts.

Chetan is a Chartered Accountant and a Company Secretary by qualification.

Archana Rajaram

Archana Rajaram

General Counsel

Archana Rajaram is General Counsel at Unilazer Ventures. Previously, Archana was a senior associate at AZB & Partners where she handled numerous mergers and acquisitions and divestments including the sale of UTV Motion Pictures by its founders to The Walt Disney Company for an enterprise value of $ 1.4 billion. She also led venture capital and private equity transactions in various sectors and has advised on issues concerning Indian securities laws, exchange control regulations and corporate governance. Prior to working at AZB & Partners, she worked at Nishith Desai Associates.

Archana has authored many articles in leading international publications such as Asialaw and BNA International as well as national newspapers such as Economic Times and Mint. She was also awarded a scholarship by the International Bar Association for her paper on ‘Minority Shareholder Protections'..

Archana holds a B.A, LLB degree and was admitted to practice in 2006.

Shahen Hansotia

Shahen Hansotia

VP – Sales Revenue & Business Development

Shahen has joined U Sports to create and build U Moto, a 250cc motorcycle racing competition. A motorcycle enthusiast himself, Shahen spends his weekends and even holidays riding cross-country. He joins U Sports from Eventfaqs Media Limited, where he spearheaded the marketing and advertising sales business along with piloting and launching new product offerings for the organisation. In addition to being an MBA from University of Nottingham, he also holds a Scuba Diving Licence from PADI.

He was last with EPIC Television Networks as Head Marketing and In-House Production. Has handled profiles across marketing, sales, content, production, syndication and brand solutions. Started his career as an entrepreneur in logistics.

Gurbaksh Virdi

AVP – Sports & Sport Operations

With more than 6 years of experience across sports and event management, Gurbaksh Singh Virdi has been a part of many cutting edge projects like Red Bull Campus Cricket which is currently present in 8 countries and has introduced players like K L Rahul and Karun Nair into the Indian National Cricket Team. Gurbaksh holds a Bachelors degree in Arts and Diploma in Event Management and has worked with renowned athletes like Varun Aaron, Gautam Gambhir, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Manan Vohra – Cricket, Subroto Paul – Football, Tuhin Satarkar - Rock Climbing and several other cricketers in Australia, Pakistan, England, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Some of the marquee projects he has worked on include Formula 1 -- Tack opener, Show car project in Delhi followed by Khardungla project where the Formula 1 vehicle was taken to the highest motorable road in India and Moto Cross -- X - Fighters project. He has also worked on grass-root level programs focused on the development of the sport (cricket). In his role as Manager – Sports Projects at U Sports, Gurbaksh is responsible for driving all functions related to project management and event administration.

Tushaar Garg

Tushaar Garg

AVP - Brand & Partnerships

Tushaar is an international sport, media and entertainment business professional with 10 years of experience in ‘concept-selling’ and ‘IP-builidng’ . He started his career with IMG where he was responsible for the profitability of IMG’s ground properties such as Chennai Open (now TATA Maharashtra Open), Lakme Fashion Week, Avantha Masters Golf and World Series of Boxing (WSB). He also managed the licensing and merchandising program for Wimbledon, Manchester United and NewYork Fashion Week. His most notable experience was the sales and marketing of the central commercial program of the IPL since its inception in 2008. He also led the revenue function for market-maker start-ups such as UAE Beach Soccer, Total Sports Asia (TSA) and Stepathlon.

Tushaar is a Tennis Player, Tri-athlete and Trekker and alum of FIFA Masters and Shri Ram College of Commerce.

Nimisha Paul

Nimisha Paul

Senior Manager - Corporate

Nimisha started her career at Red Bull in 2008. Her role as a Field Marketing Specialist was to manage the Wings Teams and Student Brand Managers (SBM) for Mumbai. Additionally, it was also to support the Field Marketing Manager and ensure seamless implementation of defined Sports, Culture and Communication projects. During her tenure at Red Bull, she was credited with running one of the best SBM teams in the country. Her first major event was the Red Bull Speed Link, where the Red Bull F1 Car was driven on the then newly opened Bandra- Worli Sea Link. The experience of working with this international company gave her a very strong understanding of sports events and marketing. Nimisha also holds a Masters degree in Event Management from Griffith University, Australia.

A complete people’s person, her strength lies in knowing how to get things done. An avid dancer and sports enthusiast herself, she continues to play throwball tournaments to this day.

Nimisha has joined U Sports to lead Communications and handle Operations for all their properties.

Nilkhil Kumar

Nilkhil Kumar

Manager - Sports & Sport Operations

Nikhil is a qualified Civil engineer and an MBA in Operations and International Business. He has previously worked in multiple domains, first as a Subject matter Expert with Pearson India Education Services and most recently as a Product Analyst at E Bee Global Solutions Pvt. Ltd. where his work involved Product Demos, taking Business Requirements from the client, creating Agile user stories for the software and constructing the Feature Backlog for the software.

His other interests include a deep love for the Indian armed forces and automobiles alike while Fictional works of literature provide another avenue of stress busting.

Amar Ratnam

Amar Ratnam

Manager - Marketing

Amar Ratnam aka “rey” is an avid gamer from childhood and has spent endless hours in front of the screen playing variety of videogames on different platforms. Eventfully time came when he turned his hobby of gaming into a profession and became one of the first paid to play gamer & gaming clan in India. He is also the founding member for the first professional E-sports team in India (Ate.gaming) and has played Counter Striker professionally for over a decade and has represented India in Counter Striker 1.6 at several major global tournaments like ESWC (Electronic Sports World cup), WCG (World Cyber Games), KODE 5 etc. In addition he has also worked with the leading videogame distributors and retailers in India. In his free time, you will find him watching Superhero TV shows or other popular series and simply trying out new games on the PC or Console.

Shivnarayan Pandey

Shivnarayan Pandey

Asst. Manager - Sports & Sport Operations

An expert in event conceptualisation and activation with over 8 years of experience. Shivnarayan holds a key role in both management & execution of all U Sports’ sporting properties. He joined U Sports from Jagran Solutions. He has worked for a variety of clients including Red Bull, Audi India, Sony Television, Pidilite, ITC, Star TV and many more. He has driven many iconic properties like Red Bull Campus Cricket, Audi Twin Cup, KBC Hot Seat event and Star Parivaar Awards to name a few.

His interests lie in playing sports, travelling, food especially exotic Indian cuisines and music.

Vibhav Pratap Rao

Vibhav Pratap Rao

Asst. Manager - Marketing

Driven by his extreme enthusiasm for motorsports, Vibhav made the switch in his career from a production engineer to a sports associate. He owes this change to the experience he had in SIC Malaysia of the MotoGP round which changed his life. His big dream is to watch every race in the MotoGP Calender someday! His other hobbies include motorcycle riding and watching movies. Vibhav joins U Sports as Sports Associate and is eagerly looking forward to be a part of U Moto.

Yatin Chopra

Yatin Chopra

International Consultant

Based in Germany since 2008, having done his MBA in General Management & Marketing from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, and gradually specializing Sports Marketing, Yatin closely involved in leading the programme in Germany. Yatin possesses rich experience in project management and has a thorough understanding of the finer aspects of an international football training programme.